Carolina pulled out her Life Story Album the other day and was looking at the pictures and talking about 'her' story.
She asked me to read to her the announcement we had sent out on our return home from China and I couldn't do it without crying ... these two darling girls have been an absolute gift, a blessing in our lives.
Anyone who has been a birth parent knows that particular experience. Adopting a child from China is very much a similar experience .... You are exhausted ( from labour, from a 12 hour flight to the other side of the world ) , you have little time to adjust to the actual experience ( labour starts when it starts you mostly don't get to decide, babies are delivered to the hotel whenever it is they get there and usually very shortly after you arrive in their birth province so you are totally jet lagged ), and none of the little bundles come with manuals, so you are essentially on your own .
The highs , the lows, the doubts , the incredible happiness, all are part of both experiences. The wait - 9 months for birth parents , anywhere from that to several years or more for red thread parents seems to last forever. The joyeous hopefullness, the wanting so much to become a family, to welcome that child into your life, to want to do the best for them, wanting to protect them forever is all so much a part of both experiences !!!
However families are created, whatever experience we go through to form that very special relationship and bond, families are forever and we are so very blessed to have those people in our lives!!
A lovely post -- What a big girl Carolina is -- Lianne passed on to me your address -- couldn't figure out how you had found our blog -- but it was great to hear from you.
ReplyDeleteNow I'm going to ad your blog to my list to keep watch on. :)
We have so been blessed with our girls -- and can't believe that now I have one old enough to take back to China for the homeland tour.